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I'll freely admit I was a dumb kid who grew up using AOL. And even then it seemed antiquated and restrictive, to the point I began to use browsers other than AOL. We're still paying it for, mostly because my parents' old email accounts are still there.
But it still evokes nostalgia in me, especially the design. The early-00s AOL design language was...it's hard to put into words. It was sort of in between "the Web is the cool new thing" and "help me figure this scary new thing out" since it was supposed to appeal to everyone. But it was rounded, friendly and lightly-colored. Obviously Windows XP was rubbing off on them, as it had a very similar aesthetic...one that still lives on in AOL's Desktop Gold, which AFAIK still uses the visual look largely established by AOL 9.0 Optimized way back in 2003 (since at this point their target audience of older folks and/or people who can only use dial-up are resistant to change).
Regardless, I wanted to document as much of the design as possible, and fortunately, a lot of the designers have put up stuff regarding it, and I wanted to have a central hub for it all.
- Welcome screen
- AOL 8.0/9.0 design (including prototypes that never made it out)
- The AOL Media Player (based on Winamp I'm guessing)
- Unused AOL membership cards (check out the AOL Time Warner corporate stuff on the back!)
- AOL Communicator (stand-alone email/IM program)
- Content channels, KOL, AOL Red and broadband prototypes
- Finally, the case study for this era of AOL straight from their art director of the time
Not all of you may have fond memories of AOL (or your only fond memories were of trolling people until you got kicked off), but for me it's a reminder of a simpler time -- when the Internet hadn't gotten completely screwed up yet.
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Memories by Wayne
Great post! AOL, while limited in functionality for more advanced users, was a resourceful, friendly, colorful, cheerful way to welcome an entire generation to the Internet. It's historical but also shaped the future of the Internet as we know it today. I quickly went to using my phone company's dial-up ISP service. But I had a separate AOL user name through my Aunt's account. So I could still sign-in and use their features, AOL IM, while still using Netscape Navigator for most of my everyday "web surfing". And even though my Aunt obviously not using AOL anymore, my user name still exists as a functioning @aol.com address. At any point in time I would have AOL IM, Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ going. There was something fun and exciting about messaging those days you just can't achieve in the likes of Facebook Messenger.
Goblin Teatime
I missed the AOL days, but your designs look great!
They're not mine, I simply wanted to document other people's designs.
by ToriElectra; ; Report
Sorry about that!
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report